In a recent Time Magazine “op-ed” piece, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar went ballistic on the Donald Sterling situation. A former coach for the L.A. Clippers, himself, Abdul-Jabbar is in a position to know of what he speaks.
“Racists deserve to be paraded around the modern town square of the television screen so that the rest of us who believe in the American ideals of equality can be reminded that racism is still a disease that we haven’t yet licked.”
But Abdul-Jabbar did not just excoriate Sterling himself. He took to task everyone who has been ignoring Sterling’s open racism for years.
“He was discriminating against black and Hispanic families for years, preventing them from getting housing. It was public record. We did nothing. Suddenly he says he doesn’t want his girlfriend posing with Magic Johnson on Instagram and we bring out the torches and rope. Shouldn’t we have all called for his resignation back then?”
Then Abdul-Jabbar touched on a topic that people have been whispering about in comment sections, but has never quite made the headlines:
The smoking gun that finally led to Sterling’s lifetime ban from the NBA was something that never should have been made public. It was a private conversation between two people, with the expectation that it would remain private. It was not part of some back room deal under investigation. It was the very kind of material that the American public has been screaming from the rafters should not be made available to the likes of the NSA.
But we got our hands on it through the media. And we’re lapping it up.
Abdul-Jabbar asks, “Shouldn’t we be equally angered by the fact that his private, intimate conversation was taped and then leaked to the media?”
“So, if we’re all going to be outraged, let’s be outraged that we weren’t more outraged when his racism was first evident. Let’s be outraged that private conversations between people in an intimate relationship are recorded and publicly played.”
An interesting perspective from a man who could very well feel that the ends justify the means in cases like this. And while Abdul-Jabbar certainly has no love for the likes of Sterling, he lays it out clearly that there is so much of this that is disgusting.
“I hope whoever made this illegal tape is sent to prison.”
Strong words from the man who used to have to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes.
Image via YouTube